Survey says home contents under-insured by £255bn

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Survey says home contents under-insured by £255bn

A survey commissioned by AXA has revealed that Britons under-insure their home contents by a staggering £255bn.

Should a disaster strike this could leave millions of people struggling just to replace their lost goods.

The average coverage for home contents is a shade below £29,000, a full £9,000 less than the average value consumers place on their household goods.

The reason behind the discrepancy is that many homeowners forget to count items such as furniture and gardening equipment and accessories when adding up their home contents for insurance purposes.

As the economic weather becomes ever gloomier, it can be tempting to consider insurance as an area to cut back on for some small short-term savings.

However, picking an insurer with the lowest premium isn’t always the best choice as such policies may under-insure the contents of a home.

AXA’s Personal Lines Intermediary MD Mike Keating explains that a policy can be rendered invalid if the cost of home contents are not adequately covered by it.